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“And Shadow?” I asked, stifling a gasp as I felt Carnon’s hand move up my leg. Scathanna smiled unpleasantly.
“To the south,” she said, swirling her wine, which looked like blood in her crystal goblet. “In the caverns beneath the mountains.”
“And what of Oneiros?” I asked. “And all the other towns not in a court?”
“They fall under my jurisdiction,” said Carnon, his fingers stroking lazy circles over my thigh that made my skin buzz with something like anticipation. “Although sometimes I allow the Lords to mete out justice as necessary if one of their own kind commits a crime.”
“Do the Lords try the worst crimes?” I asked, looking around the room. Carnon laughed darkly.
“No,” he replied. “Those fall to me.”
Dinner passed with interminable slowness, the conversation turning to trade and other matters I knew very little about. As Cerridwen predicted, Scathanna mentioned her spider silk gown, lamenting the cost of fabric outside the Court of Shadows, and Tyr and Herne got into a lengthy argument about the proper translation of some ancient religious text.
All the while, Carnon moved his fingers in circles on my leg, inching higher as the evening passed. I couldn’t tell him to stop because it would look suspicious, and the ass knew it. Appallingly, I realized I didn’t want him to. His fingers were igniting an inferno within me, and what I really wanted was for him to move them even higher.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, leaning close as servants took away the dishes to bring out dessert. I was sure my face was flushed, and from Carnon’s wicked smirk I must be correct. “This is not what we agreed to.”
“You said no kissing,” Carnon mumbled, leaning in close so we wouldn’t be overheard and meeting my eyes with heated intensity. “If I am making you uncomfortable, say the word and I’ll stop.”
He watched me with a gleam of challenge in his eyes, and I pursed my lips in frustration.
“Lord Tyr,” I said, turning to the Lord of Blood beside me. I plastered on my most winning smile and leaned my elbow on the table, my head in my hand. “Tell me more about your court.”
I hoped Carnon was scowling fiercely behind me. Based on Cerridwen’s raised eyebrows, he definitely was. I felt his hand snake higher up my thigh as he tried to distract me from my punishment.
“Maybe you’d like to visit it, Lady Elara,” Lord Tyr said smoothly, glancing at Carnon, then back to me with an all-too-eager grin. I batted my eyelashes and felt Carnon’s hand grip my thigh. “The stars at night shine so brightly they light up the whole mountain range, and the blood of our ancestors sings in the very stone of the rocks.”
Tyr went on at great and boring length, and I smiled and laughed and nodded enthusiastically throughout. But I confess my attention was solely focused on the fingers traveling up my leg. Carnon had turned to converse with Scathanna, seeming to decide that two could play this game, but I knew I had his attention from the way his hand moved. His fingers just barely grazed my center, and I let out a little gasp.
“Dinner is over,” Carnon announced, standing and gesturing to the doors. “We will reconvene tomorrow night. Lady Elara and I eagerly await your decision regarding her trial.”
A scraping of chairs followed as the Lords and Cerridwen made their exit. She shot me a questioning look as Herne escorted her out of the room. I made to leave as well, but Carnon stopped me with a hand.
“Not you,” he growled. He sounded furious, and I wondered if I had pushed him too far by flirting with Tyr. I stood in shaking silence as the last of the Lords filed out, and Carnon waved his hand, closing the door in a flash of shadowy magic
“What the fuck was that?” he growled, turning on me. He held my wrist tightly, pulling me into him until I was pressed against him, the magic of my permission still in effect.
“You first,” I snapped back, trying and failing to free myself.
Carnon growled, leaning so close to me, a part of me panicked that he would kiss me and risk his own death. My heart pounded at his closeness, and the idiotic, romantic, naive part of me that craved him now begged for me to ask him to kiss me.
Carnon’s eyes flared, as if he knew exactly what that part of me wanted, and his gaze went molten. “If you don’t grant me permission, Elara,” he said, his forked tongue flicking over his lips. “Then I'm going to do something extremely reckless, and you’ll be left engaged to whichever Demon King comes after me.”
For a moment we stood, gazes locked, as he waited to see what I would do next. I had the power, I realized, and Goddess above, I wanted nothing more than for this male to be inside me again.
“Then kiss me,” I breathed.
Chapter 12
I barely got the words out before Carnon’s mouth crashed into mine. I moaned a little as his arms tightened around me, his hands roving over every curve as if he needed to rediscover me from our time apart.
His lips moved over mine, across my jaw, and down my neck as he lifted me to sit on the dining table in front of him, sending plates and glasses and silverware careening in every direction.
“What are you doing?” I gasped as he slid his hand into my hair and captured my mouth with his again, that forked tongue of his doing wicked things to my own. I moaned and he broke away, my red lipstick smeared across his bottom lip.
“No bedroom, remember?” he asked, pressing his lips to my throat as he worked at the buttons of the dress. “I seem to remember telling you not an hour ago that I’d make you beg for this.”
“You also vowed to grovel for a century,” I said, moving my hands to his jacket and shirt and trying to get them off him as he did the same to me. I managed to get the jacket off him before he undid the last button on my dress.
